After kicking away a six-year deal worth $58 million, Ben Gordon held out for -- drum roll, please! -- a one-year qualifying offer of $6.4 million. For non-mathematologists, that's a net loss of almost $52 million in guaranteed money. But Ben's going all Alfred E. Neuman about the whole thing:

"I don't regret any decisions. I always try to make the right one. I have my own set of reasons why I make decisions that may be different than anyone else's. After looking at how everything went down, I definitely made the right decision."

Boy, I'd hate to see what happens when Ben makes the wrong decision. The supposed upshot of the one-year deal is that Ben will be an unrestricted free agent again next summer, when, apparently, he and his agent believe teams will suddenly be keen on handing over a max contract to an undersized shooting guard who can't handle the ball, create plays for his teammates, or defend anybody at his position. This will be right after gold nuggets start falling from the sky and just before Al-Qaeda starts handing out real kittens instead of kitten-shaped bombs.

this is a comment that is completely off the point but you should write an article about Candace Parker. I know, womens basketball sucks and the WNBA only exist cuz of Emperor Stern but Parker might be the best baller in the world when you consider dominance over her opponents.

I know this might be taboo with Bron-Bron and Kobe out there but, She won the olympic gold, WNBA MVP AND ROOKIE OF THE YEAR all in the same calender year. If thats not enough, think about all the hardware she picked up while in college, which was only in may of this yr. Plus she dislocated her shoulder, which is alot more painful than what Kobe did with his freakin pinkie finger,

I love the NBA but Parker might be the best player in the world right now.

If there was ever a no-brainer to take the long-term deal, this was it. I would love to know what Gordon and his advisors were thinking. On second thought, though, maybe I wouldn't want to know as I'm sure the reasoning makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

"Parker might be the best baller in the world when you consider dominance over her opponents."

If that's your criteria for best player in the world then I'm the best player in the world because I kick my 5 year old brother's ass at basketball. (It's okay I let him win sometimes)

Gordon is stupid beyond words. Wow. I'm the leading scorer, I deserve to be paid the most, right? He parallels himself with Jordan cause both were drafted 3rd and both play SG. God this guy has no grip on reality.

Hinrich's a ton better than Gordon. Hinrich is actually a good defender for his size and abilities outside of launching 20+ shots a game. Unfortunately, because Gordon is a midget, Hinrich gets to look bad guarding SGs instead of PGs.

Here's what Gordon has going for him: he's a great scorer, especially during the 4th quarter. That's about it, really.

Here's what he doesn't have going: being very undersized, having lousy point guard skills, and being a defensive liability. Basically, everything else. And on top of all that, he insists on being a starter despite all signs pointing to his being a better 6th man spark off the bench. Why? Only the mind of someone who turned down generous contract offers this year AND last year can know why.

If you look at the women's game right now, it's only one or two decades behind the men's game, and the WNBA was started 48 years after the NBA. The women should catch up to the men in about one to two decades.

Once we have equal numbers of women playing basketball as men on the high school level (which shouldn't be too long from now), there'll be more available talent to draw from, equalizing the men and the women in terms of talent.

Bawful, please do not allow this site become a forum for people arguing about gender equality. Maybe it's time for another one of your spot-on descriptions of the WNBA.I don't get it, is it because Hillary and Palin arrive on the political scene in America (50 years later than most of the civilised world), these emboldened "feminists" suddenly become vocal again? I'm all for equality and women doing sports, but the fact is almost all womens sport- and especially the WNBA is an inferior product. I personally love watching basketball, and would appreciate it if the media, special feminist interest groups, and fathers with butch daughters stopped trying to force me to like womens basketball. It is not the same thing. It's like telling all road users to go to work in a horse-driven cart twice a week. It's like Dharma and Greg following a re-run of Seinfeld. It's like cheating on Elizabeth Hurley with a manky old prostitute. It's like Ben Gordon's successful contract holdout. It's like... I think you get the point.

Annonymous: Get back to us in "about one to two decades" and if the "women catch up with the men", I will promise to not complain about women's basketball being on the media, NBA.com, Espn etc. Hell, maybe once they catch up, the WNBA can merge with the NBA. It could be called the VNBA-Euro League.

Sun devil's post cracked me up. But then I stopped laughing because I remembered Gordon will earn more money in a single year than I will in my entire life.

Ruben: It's cool, I don't follow the WNBA either except during the later rounds of the playoffs, if at that, and everyone agrees the NBA is a vastly superior product. Just, what's up with the nasty vitriol from the general basketball community? The WNBA isn't hurting anyone. The NBA can survive losing a whole 12 million a year. There's no reason to lash out.

Women who play pro sports are ugly butch lesbians, I know, but those jokes got old a looong time ago, just like pointing out American football is superduper gay is old hat as well.

Al James: I'd totally do Chris Paul. It's OK, my bf and I have an agreement on this: he can likewise do Stacy Dash, if the situation ever arises.

anonymous -- It's only NOT a contract fail if Gordon manages to land a contract next season that's worth more than $60 million over six years. It could happen, sure. But I just don't see teams suddenly deciding he's worth more than $10 million a year, guaranteed for six years. I don't see that happening, particularly since, with the logjam of guards they have in Chicago, I doubt Ben will be the team's leading/go-to scorer this season.

But Gordon's already proved somewhat immune to the contract year phenomenon since 07/08 was a contract year for him as well and we've seen how that went. Plus with Rose and a full year of Larry Hughes his minutes will probably drop. I'm with Bawful, I think he's gambled and lost. Not to mention he's eating all those words about having played his last game as a Bull and looks kind of dumb for it.